Thursday, December 14, 2017

CAT IN A BAG

This tail,
for your info,
is not to be stepped on.
I don't care what you were doing,
you should have been careful.
Of course I'm down here
a cat must inspect the drawers
at all times - it's my job!
Now watch out for
this tail!

One day in the evening during dinner time in the kitchen, it was me, Anand at one end of the glass top dining table, Lijo and Mallika. Lijo was at the gas stove, Anand and Mallika were talking and I was at the other end of the the dining table staring back through the glass top at Shami who was scratching on my trousers and meowing and looking at me after each trial, I guess to see my reaction because there weren't any except the blank cold look. I was thinking “Why O Why, Shami is doing this?”. Then I heard Jai meowing and I looked at Jai and there a house lizard was being a toy(torture for lizard)) in his paws. Jai ate it and his attention was now at the fluttering plastic carry bag under the ceiling fan. Jai was chasing the bag and is now behind my chair. I got up from my chair and began observing how Jai was exploring the carry bag. First he was hesitant to put his head inside it. After a trial of two he was confident and began exploring the inside gradually more and more of his body was disappearing into the bag. Observing this  sinister thought occured to me. After almost more than half of his body was inside the bag, I thrust my hands and grabbed the bag and the cat tumbled into the bag like Alice into the Rabbithole. And held the bag raised in my right hand with the bags opening eld shut in my right hand palm. Anand,Mallika and Lijo were looking at the carry bag which was quavering violently but silent. Everyone were perplexed, they were wondering what was inside the bag?. Then I announced “CAT IN A BAG” with a grin. It took at least 5 seconds to sink into everyone's mind. Then Anand with an uproarious laughter, “FUCK!!! FUCK DUDE!!! HOW DID YOU ?”, soon Mallika was laughing in excitement and when I looked at Lijo, he had his usual smile and he was giving me a thumbs up. Then I let Jai free and he scuttled away afraid. Anand asked me how did I ?, o which I replied fishing for fun with children at moms place during childhood.

I saw Mallika giggling and looking at me frequently and discussing with Anand. I enquired and he replied that “Mallika was mentioning you must be good at fishing” I thanked her and he corrected “fishing girls!!! Big fish small fish and all…” I laughed a bit embarrassingly. That day night chatting to Lorraine I mentioned this. She laughed and broached a particular point, the cat never meowed when it was struggling, I surmised that Jai might be shocked that he forgot to MEOW. I mentioned about the idiom “cat always lands on its feet” to which she opined “with you around a cat is not safe!!!” and called me “The Fisher King”.

R.P



During our RP(ragging period), we had a ragging session called cycling. Two guys stand facing each other and slap each other alternatively the requried number of times ie count. Usually 30, slap each other 30 times. And you get a peculiar sound when you slap the proper way. So, one day during RP it was me and another guy from Kerala state 1st yr, we were taken to the stadium, our cycling session began and shortly there was no power. We hesitated because we cannot see, reminded the presiding senior about the power cut and darkness.Seniors asked us to continue in the darkness. We continued and because we cannot see, that specific sound of slapping was amiss. So we had to repeat the slapping multiple times to get it right. By now we were past 40. The other guy began crying and we were getting frustrated. I think he couldn't take my bludgeoning and the humiliation by seniors. He slapped me with all his might and that was like Salim Kumar(Sasi) being slapped in Malarvaadi Arts Club. I felt a slight numbness on the right side of my neck. Well that's it. I was enraged, I jumped and slapped him like Achilles stabbing the giant in Troy movie, because he is 6'1 and I'm 5'7. The seniors and I heard something collapsing. They came rushing and realised the other guy is unconscious. They were scared and excused me and I went to my hostel. The next day I couldnt turn my neck as it was cramped. My roomie and I went to the Jaya hospital and I had to wear a neck collar. On the way back from hospital I went to the other guys room and asked how was he and he replied "polayadi mone!!!" Then I reminisced moms saying " nee thotta polum vedanikkum, athengana, Dritarashtra aalinganam alle(hug like Dritarashtrar)". So I hugged him and said "sorry Deepak" and mentioned about mom's remark and we laughed and patched up over a cup of tea by Chotu,from cafeteria. We think about this the 24 of us even after 10 years of college and I ended up being called KungFu by almost everyone including some friendly professors.